


Scavenger Hunt 2025

by Visardist



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Multi, mild dubcon in the form of surprise kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 03:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1764487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Visardist/pseuds/Visardist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Great Scavenger Hunt of the Shatterdomes, 2025. Written for pr-a-thon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scavenger Hunt 2025

**Author's Note:**

> This has some timeline fudging so that there's a few more days between Raleigh's arrival and Otachi&Leatherback's attack.
> 
> Thanks to heixicanadragon for beta'ing!

No one is quite sure who started it, or where, or when. The list circulated among the Shatterdomes, increasing slowly in length, and while it seemed no one would ever complete it, periodically there were weekends when, without any announcement, people would attempt to achieve as many as possible. Those weekends grew fewer and fewer as time went on and kaiju attacks increased, but it is known that in terms of overall completion, only two teams have achieved so much as 45% of the list, and only three teams have completed as much as 27% in the forty-eight hour period. All five of these teams no longer exist, as several members have ceased working for the PPDC. Some are dead. Some found it safer to work inland.

In its entirety only 89% of the list has been completed by various teams. Some tasks have never been completed.

There has not been a scavenger hunt in over a year and a half when everyone collects at last in the Hong Kong Shatterdome.

The mood is not promising.

No one is really certain how the game starts, either, although everyone has attended at least one conclusion to a scavenger hunt. Certainly there’s talk of a scavenger hunt in the preceding weeks. Someone expresses nostalgia, someone else curiosity. Someone says that they’d pick this person and that person for their team; someone else laughs and agrees or counters and names others. The talk spreads like a virus, the enthusiasm lifting the general mood with it. Someone notices that most departments in the Dome are ahead of schedule in preparing for the next predicted attack, and as said attack is most likely on the Thursday after, most people have the weekend off. A sign-up sheet turns up. So it goes.

No one can quite pinpoint who compiles the list, or how, or who they get to translate it. The list itself has always been generic, limiting tasks to things found universally in Shatterdomes, but this latest version has several things specific to the Hong Kong Shatterdome.

Perhaps it’s only reasonable. It’s the last one running, after all. Who knows when they’ll have time for another: the end of the world is nigh. This may be the last scavenger hunt they all participate in.

The email with the full PDF arrives in participants’ inboxes on Friday afternoon (and is promptly forwarded to non-participants, either as a warning, or as secondary help, or in order to aid in betting). The list in its current entirety comprises a little over seven pages in single-spaced twelve-point font; translated into English, both Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Russian, and Japanese, it is a huge amount of data. Some teams take the opportunity for a nap, knowing that the game will commence exactly at midnight. Some spend their last nine hours strategising over tasks and preparing themselves.

For some teams, the choice is only natural. The Jaeger pilots already have teams formed, though theirs are the smallest of the lot with only two for most of them. K-Science, now numbering only two, has remembered a few tasks from previous years involving stealing small pieces of equipment from the labs and have chosen to lock things down and  _keep interfering people away dear god do you realise the danger to my specimens/chalkboards._  LOCCENT has divided, their participants making the biggest team at ten with the remaining LOCCENT monitoring the situation and occasionally devolving into commentating. The administrative side has likewise divided, but everyone is absolutely certain that the Marshal isn’t participating. Half the Dome are determined that getting his help in completing a task will garner them big points, while the other half are ready to avoid him as much as possible.

—

Mako has fond memories of being in scavenger hunts in Domes past, and of teaming up with various people (usually the local Jaeger pilots, having adopted Mako as their transient mascot). Raleigh hasn’t been in one in years, so his eyes widen reading the whole list.

“I don’t think it was even half this long the last time I- wow. Six-fingered glove? Has anyone done _that_?”

“Oh, my team got that about two years back. We cut two gloves and sewed them together to make six.” She grins in fond reminiscence. “There was such an argument when they totted up the points, I don’t think we can do it again.”

He chuckles, going down the list. “Animal upside-down… test tube filled with seawater… oh, kiss a Jaeger pilot on the lips. That’ll be easy.”

She shakes her head, her lips quirking as well, though her cheeks darken a little. “You’re not seeing the point. Yes, it is easy for us, and hard for the other teams. The problem is that, since we are both unattached, we will be targets all weekend. I teamed up with the pilots of Nova Hyperion the first time this was a task; they needed to send me to look ‘round corners to make sure nobody ambushed them after the first few.”

He leans back against the wall and sucks up the last of his chocolate milk contemplatively. “We have four Jaegers here, though. With eig- nine pilots—“

“Seven,” she corrects him. “No one will even try to kiss the Kaidanovskies. Too intimidating.”

“Too intimidating,” he parrots. “Because they’re both giants or because they’re married?”

Then he looks up, because as tentative as their bond is, he can still tell something’s up. Mako’s staring at him in that thoughtful way he’s getting used to, gnawing a little on her lower lip.

“Because they’re married,” she repeats, and he understands that she’s not answering his speculative question. “Raleigh. If people think  _we’re_  attached, they might back off of us too.”

For a moment he can’t even see it in practical terms—he’s too busy thinking it out and going thoroughly red under the remnants of his work-tan. Then he makes himself nod, because she’s waiting for an answer. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good idea. We’ve only got until midnight, though—can we convince enough people by then?”

In answer, she leans forward and kisses him, chastely and, it must be said, a bit stiffly. He’s slightly late returning it; she’s already leaning back before he can kick his brain into gear. She smiles at him then, a delighted little grin that looks like she’s planning something. “We can try.”

—

Chuck groans, looking at #283, holding an animal upside-down. “Aw, great. Look at two eighty-three, dad—we’re gonna be lugging Max around again. Thought we got this crap struck  _off._ ”

Herc scans down the list, laughing as he finds the task. “That was Sydney. Whoever’s done this one probably didn’t get the memo. Don’t worry—there’s those cats I’ve seen in the mess hall. They probably won’t bother when there’s free targets running around.”

“Right. Okay. Where d’we get glitter paint?”

“You sure you wanna go for that one? That’ll take a while to finish. Here, number fifty-two. A real book published in the twentieth century, that’ll be good.”

“Right, ‘cause you never read anything published after I was born,” Chuck snorts.

Herc opts not to take the easy bait and point out that that’s probably because Chuck used to be a terror of a child and so neither he nor Angela ever had much time to spare for themselves.

—

“Are we agreed? We all pretend to be Cheung if anyone tries to kiss us.”

“You know that some of them can differentiate us, right.”

“We can try anyway, gege, Anatoly will get mad whether or not it’s you who gets kissed as long as he thinks it’s you. And Hu,  _don’t_  let Leidian kiss you.”

“Excuse me, she’s my  _girlfriend_. Why are we letting Cheung give  _his_  boyfriend points then?”

Cheung and Jin look at each other across the table before directing identical looks of scorn at their brother.

“You broke up with her.”

You broke up  _very vocally_.”

“She  _slapped_  you.”

“We’ve been here every step of your stupid on-off relationship.”

“But this is  _war_ , Hu.”

“We are not giving points to your  _ex_ -girlfriend because you’ll get back together with her regardless. Anatoly is a matter of accord and being polite.”

Hu slumps down in his seat and over the table, flicking his sunglasses back into place. “Should have put her on our team. Then we could get points for that.”

Cheung pokes his brother on the forehead. “We could have gotten Anatoly too. But you don’t hear  _me_ complaining.”

Jin pauses suddenly in his scrolling to jab at the screen, turning the tablet round for his brothers to see. “Hey, look at this one.”

Cheung and Hu lean close to see, their animosity forgotten for the moment, and stare. Cheung is the one who reads it out loud. “Steal something from Crimson Typhoon’s snack- what? Who came up with this one?”

Hu thinks carefully back through the list of people they know are participating. “Oh no—our whole crew’s participating. No one can lock that down.”

Jin drums his fingers on their ball, trying to figure out some way to keep that task from completely emptying their precious snack bar. “If we empty it beforehand—“

“We won’t be able to do it ourselves once the game’s started,” Hu cuts across him. “This task needs photographic proof or people can just hold up any old bag of chips and say it’s from our bar. Do we want to risk that?”

“We’d get reduced points if we or the crew did that task,” Cheung points out practically. “So we can empty it out and keep everyone from completing it, or we can share goodwill and let everybody have a chance.”

It doesn’t seem like really much of a choice, the way he puts it.

—

Sasha is humming along to the thumping music, quite pleased as she lies back against her husband while scrolling down the list. They have not had so much time as to take part in many of these hunts, but since it’s probably the last one, what’s one last hurrah?

“Hanging a sign. That will be easy for us. Oh! This task, this will make it more interesting.” She shifts up a little to show him the tablet. Her back is still pressed against his chest, making it easy to feel his rumbling laughter as he reads #270.

“Really? You would sacrifice it for this game?”

“There is nothing of consequence if there is not sacrifice,” Sasha intones solemnly, then grins. “It is surely hardy enough to survive 280 foot fall. All we need to do is have a nice light sign so it will not have to try.”

Aleksis cards his hand through her hair where it’s unbraided and loose, twisting it between his fingers. “Then we shall make the best sign. What about this one? A picture of a Jaeger figurine versus a kaiju toy.”

She looks over to the shelf they have arranged with all the kaiju they have defeated and, at the very end, a toy Cherno Alpha with triumphant fists upraised. “Our only problem will be which kaiju to destroy again.”

—

At dinner, the mood is tense. Those who haven’t just taken their meal trays back to their rooms are watching everyone else like hawks. The non-participants are quietly making book, unsubtly walking back and forth behind participants who have plans spread out before them and loudly discuss what tasks they’re aiming for. The most common bet is who will win the overall hunt, though some savvier bettors are dividing their cash among individual tasks for their chosen teams. The favourites by sheer numbers are the Jaeger pilots, though some of their crews come in distantly after them. The most popular and bet-on task is, naturally, #340.

The Kaidanovskies are eating their dinner quite serenely, as if it’s any other evening and they’re not about to plunge headlong into Shatterdome-wide chaos. You could almost believe you have the date wrong, just by looking at them.

But looking across to the frantic workings of their crew, some of them with their mouths half-full and left open as they debate, tells a different story. As much as Cherno Alpha’s pilots are ready and calm, their crew buzzes with activity. One person seems to have hacked into the personnel database in order to find out who might best be able to help them complete a task, and cross-checking with a copy of the signup sheet.

Striker Eureka’s participants are a bit more subdued, but they’re still clearly gearing up for the hunt. Chuck is looking around, catching the eye of anyone who happens to glance in his direction so that he can leer at them and generally posture in an attempt to intimidate them. (It’s not really working, but no one particularly cares enough to tell him that.)

Max, his leash wound round the table leg, is happily emptying his food bowl, pausing to bark gratefully at anyone who drops in a scrap for him. Each person grins widely and bends down to pat him or scratch him under his chin, and in general try to get on his good side. It’s easy, really. Max doesn’t have a bad side in the least. (Herc mutters under his breath that they’re not going to get anywhere sucking up to the dog; #283 won’t be as easy as that. Without looking at his dad, or even seeming to have heard him, Chuck nods in agreement.)

Mako and Raleigh are, somewhat bizarrely, feeding each other.

Really, she’s almost in his lap, and several people blush to look at them. Several more smirk, or roll their eyes, or both. There are enough people who care about offending a pilot’s significant other that they won’t target them for that task, and perhaps the show the pilots of Lady Danger are giving everyone is having some effect. Most, though, mutter or titter that it’s really quite cute, how ‘they’re trying to fool us but they can only fool each other’. Everyone has seen how Raleigh looks at her. No one’s missed the glances Mako gives him when she thinks he isn’t looking. No, no one’s fooled at all.

The Weis are taking turns to eat and strategise; one gobbles up his noodles while the other two discuss one task or another. It’s quite a seamless switch, the way they move when one’s done eating and the next gets his dinner. Interestingly, while the entire Crimson Typhoon table is eating quite a regular dinner, today their dessert tends rather more to snacks than anything the mess halls are serving. The crew, between their frantic note-taking and some snoozing on each other’s shoulders, are altogether giving off an air of total preparedness. Either that or destructive planning. The bets aren’t yet all in.

—

Tendo cracks his knuckles, looking at the clock before glancing to where LOCCENT’s team is gathered by the door, ready to begin. They give him thumbs up, each tugging at their laces or ready with the swag bag. He nods back, returning his eyes to the clock on the wall, as does every member of LOCCENT. It’s a full 30 seconds to midnight, and Tendo spares a brief moment of pity for any non-participant who’s trying to sleep at this moment. Screw that—he’s pitying anyone at all in the Shatterdome trying to get any sleep this weekend. If they haven’t gone out into the city and booked a room, they’re not going to have any peace. The Shatterdome bunks are not known for their soundproofing, and besides, when people need to be ready at a moment’s notice, no one sleeps heavily in a Shatterdome.

The second hand gets closer to twelve, and he finds himself drumming his fingers unconsciously to its rhythm. He starts the count as it hits ten, and over the PA system he counts: “…five. Four. Three. Two. One. Scavenger hunt 2025, go!”

The LOCCENT team is off like a shot, only pausing to document their first task. The remaining in LOCCENT holler encouragements and ‘good luck!’s after them, turning their attention to the Dome security cameras in order to entertain themselves. Mei Lingling has the task of switching the most interesting areas to Tendo’s monitor for his commentating attention, though most of LOCCENT is more interested in keeping track for betting purposes.

  * ·         5: Steal a license plate



There’s one LOCCENT member keeping an eye on the garage cameras for the express purpose of monitoring this task. He can’t see all the plates even with all the angles he has, but what he can read that’s being removed, he’ll write down and pass to Tendo so the LOCCENT commander can announce it, rather as if he’s announcing someone’s death. “And the latest to go down for task number five is license plate HS7838! If you were planning to go anywhere on that bike, I’m sorry buddy, but that is now  _il_ legal!”

Nearly all the plates that can be removed are removed by the time the game is over. Most teams remember to replace them with paper with the numbers written on, so they know which vehicle to return the plates to.

 _Most_  teams.

There’s a bit of a dustup after the game when no one can figure out what happened to Sasha’s motorcycle’s plate. Suffice it to say that even those who hadn’t completed this task are now very, very aware of the consequences of near-permanently vandalising the Kaidanovskies’ things.

  * ·         37: get a child to recite an innuendo-laden line



Teams have to venture out into Hong Kong to complete this one, so many of them pass it by. Back when Mako and Chuck weren’t yet pilots, they’d get begged all the time for help with this. Mako only helped those teams she liked; Chuck never helped unless it was for his father’s team. As they got older the definition of ‘child’ got argued about at hunt conclusions; they got dropped for good from this task the day Chuck became a Jaeger pilot.

Even when a child is found, there’s the issue of getting them to pronounce it properly. Amazingly, the Lady Danger crew actually manage to get out and back without too much fuss, and with a perfect video. Apparently simply telling a group of kids that you maintain a Jaeger carries enough currency for them to do almost anything you ask. (Even if what you ask has the side-effect of an indignant mother chasing you off and having to be placated by your team members.)

  * ·         283: Hold an animal upside-down



The most immediate creature everyone thinks of is Max. Besides being the most prominent pet in the Dome, it’s also the most obliging and easygoing. They have no fear of it attacking them for any reason.

So the Hansens fiercely protect their pet, of course.

Beyond Max are the Dome cats, which are the first to come to the minds of those who were already based in Hong Kong. But Sobo is out of the question: it’s barely gotten used to being an indoor cat after years and years, never mind a pet, and the Shatterdome, even housing as many remnants of the PPDC as is possible, offers many, many nooks and crannies for a not-quite-stray. Even if it were easy to find, it’s far beyond difficult to subdue, let alone hold in one’s arms. Too many people bear scars from its claws. Tiaowen and Luna, formerly Mako’s cats, have successfully convinced the rest of the cats that they’re harmless and assimilated into the general population. Most of the cats, belonging to various people before making the Hong Kong Shatterdome their final home, are calm, tolerant beings that adore being petted.

To Mako and Raleigh’s disappointment, however, while they’re amenable to being held, being held _upside down_  is another matter. They barely get the photo before Tiaowen explodes out of Mako’s arms to eventually land on a high pipe, looking down at them reproachfully.

Not long after Saturday dawns, it is discovered that most of the cats have disappeared, the remaining seemingly being left to fend for themselves. Most of the photos of people holding cats upside down include either scratched people or terrified cats.

(The missing cats are eventually discovered hiding in a distant attic, ruled by Sobo with its iron paw.)

For those who find tracking down dogs and cats too daunting a task, there remain the lizards. The little things slip in and out of the garages, and occasionally the kitchens, and they might be small but they’re also fast. Alas for those not careful enough how they catch these little beasts: it escapes quickly, and they’re left holding only its tail. Worse still for those who do catch the lizards and are unaware of this little trick; their photo shows them holding its tail proudly, while the lizard itself has fallen to the floor and run away.

  * ·         63: Find a basketball



That’s easy enough for the Weis, and they set aside their old, deflated one for their crew’s team. For them it’s a matter of making sure their basketball just doesn’t get stolen. Their usual method of security, bouncing the ball between them in simulation of Drifting, still leaves opportunities for it to get snatched, and when they split up they can’t decide who should take the ball. For a while the brothers take turns to carry it around, but after Cheung returns to their meeting point complaining of several different people trying to steal the basketball from him, they decide to take drastic measures.

Even the bunks aren’t off limits for the game; you actually have to barricade yourself in rather than simply lock the door because there are a ridiculous number of people in the Dome able to pick locks. So there’s no way the Weis can throw their basketball in their bunk, lock up and call it good. It has to be somewhere no one will think of looking, which is easier said than done at a time when everyone’s looking high and low for the bizarre, rare and absurd. They mark off their completed tasks a little absently, devoting more brainpower to finding a hiding place until half an hour until the end of the game.

Cheung immediately vetoes their Jaeger; anyone trying to knock off their sign shouldn’t get a freebie by finding their basketball. They can’t ask Tendo because he’ll just give it to the LOCCENT team, which, Jin said while looking meaningfully at Hu, “we  _do not want_.” Hu glares back, but suggests they hide their basketball on a high beam. Wedge it in tight enough under an arch and no one will even notice.

They settle on Hu’s suggestion, though it costs them time while they wait for other teams to go away so they can climb up, and then for more to pass through before they can get down. Jin spends a nerve-wracking quarter of an hour praying that no one passing by will wonder where the missing third of them is, or look up. Retrieving it later, when they’re all wobbling from lack of sleep, is even more daunting, and Hu actually falls asleep for a few seconds while waiting for Herc and Chuck and Max to walk on. He’s only woken by Max’s barking, and clutches on tightly in a total panic while Chuck tows Max away, exclaiming over his ‘irrational noise’.

  * ·         94: Hang a sign on a jaeger—the higher the sign, the more points



This is easiest for the crews and the pilots, and they set their signs right up on top of the Jaegers’ heads. Those unwilling to risk it hang signs on their feet, or perhaps their knees. Some ambitious teams try to knock off those signs in order to place their own. It’s not a bad strategy—the rules demand that anything put in place must remain at the end to get full points despite photographic evidence, so if they can’t get those points they can at least reduce other teams’. The fact remains, however, that anyone replacing signs had better watch themselves. One night they could turn a corner and bump into the Kaidanovskies, grinning ominously.

  * ·         270: Put up a sex toy in a public place



Sasha hangs her team’s sign on her best dildo.

The surfeit of sex toys in the mess halls means that large spots are cleared around the table. Sure, you _could_  remove them as with the signs, but firstly, that’s been near someone’s genitals, and secondly, what are you going to do with them once you’ve taken them away?

And thirdly, very very few people want to eat near those.

But the things people don’t realise are sex toys, though, that are put in unwise places, gather the funniest stories. One man’s fleshlight ends up mistaken for beer and is opened (with much muttering of ‘is this thing broken??’) and placed to lips before it is recognized for what it is.

Collecting those back will be another fun exercise. Who will be sneaking around to retrieve their belongings, and who will just stride into view and take down their vibrator? A fascinating study in Shatterdome sexuality.

  * ·         340: Get a jaeger pilot to kiss you



The Jaeger pilots have the advantage on this one, so it’s the very first thing they do. Everyone figures that the Kaidanovskies are a no-go, and no one’s quite certain about the Lady Danger pair (as much as their display at dinner was noticed) but they do feel a spectre of fear from the Marshal. The triplets and the Hansens are (mostly) unattached, so they get the brunt of it. One team has the bright idea of Marshal Pentecost since he had once been a Jaeger pilot and  _probably_  counted, but they chicken out at the last minute. He’s intimidating.

Chuck is firmly adamant on not giving other teams a handout, but Herc tells him to be a gentleman. It’s only sporting. He kisses anyone who asks, and Chuck, grudgingly, does the same. It’s not a huge number; those unfamiliar with them are more likely to divebomb them in order to steal a kiss. Herc is also sporting about that; he simply dodges. Chuck notes, even as he’s skidding out of the way of an overzealous technician, that there’s a lot more people trying to kiss his dad than himself. That’s… bothersome.

As planned, Cheung kisses his boyfriend, and then the triplets split up to carry out their tasks. Thoughtlessly, they don’t take off their red jackets first. That makes them easy to spot in the dreary corridors of the Shatterdome, and very soon the more mercenary teams are aiming for them. Hu is the first one trapped—he proclaims his identity as Cheung, which mystifies his assailants but doesn’t deter the girl from trying to kiss him.

So he ducks, dodges his way out of her arms, hits someone’s leg—he’s not really sorry about that—and runs like a bat out of hell.

Only then he bumps into the LOCCENT team.

Jin dodges four people by claiming he’s Cheung, and then a fifth, seeing through his claims (because much as the triplets like to pretend, they’re not truly identical), makes a second attempt, at which point Jin gives up all hope of sportsmanship and just socks him in the jaw before barrelling through his shocked teammates. If there’s time enough after Operation Pitfall—not that he has any illusions about the possibility of any of them making it back, but  he’s the optimist of the three of them—he’s going to organise the next hunt himself and  _strike off_  that stupid task. Or modify it so people have to  _ask._

No one asks the Kaidanovskies.

No one  _ambushes_  the Kaidanovskies.

Somewhere in the midst of getting their sign into place on Saturday afternoon, Aleksis realises this fact and points it out to his wife. She bares her teeth, her grip tight on her dildo, and hammers it into place before answering. “Ah, they’re all cowards. They’re just scared of wanting our lips. Let’s be good, generous playmates, shall we?”

He returns her wolfish grin, as he always has. “Of course.”

  * ·         184: put glitter paint on handles of each type of tool from Jaeger maintenance



For this task just a dab will do, but some get the wrong idea and try to dip whole tools. They’ll later find themselves ostracised all round by Jaeger technicians for ruining functionality and forcing them to have to find turpentine.

The smartest team lines up the whole array and simply drags the paintbrush down the line, forming a shiny straight line on the tools until they’re put back into place. Being in a hurry, the team members don’t wait for the paint to properly dry, and later discover their hands sparkling, as well as parts of their bodies and clothes they were unwise enough to touch. One particularly unlucky fellow has two glittery streaks down the side of his face and beard where he was itchy.

No one notices until Tuesday, but Lady Danger has a big glittery handprint on its foot.

  * ·         211: take a picture of a Jaeger toy vs a kaiju toy



Surprisingly, Jaeger and kaiju toys aren’t that common in the Dome. The Lady Danger crew, having gotten a kid to recite his dirty little ditty, manage to secure his older sister’s services in providing Crimson Typhoon and Trespasser for this task. Other teams are not so lucky.

The Striker Eureka crew, in a fit of creativity, make an origami Striker Eureka and kaiju (which looks more like an elephant than some eldritch monster from beyond the sea) and try to pass that off as their completed task; they await that part of the hunt conclusion with bated breath.

One luckless air pilot’s bunk is pillaged for his mint condition figurines; by the time he gets them back, Romeo Blue’s front fin is nicked and it’s possible that Reckoner is missing a tooth. He could almost cry.

He does, however, pledge himself to paying particular attention during that part of the conclusion so he can revenge himself on the perpetrators of this crime.

  * ·         483: find 6-fingered glove



Rayner Kavanagh, of the mess hall cooks, a non-participant, makes a good profit getting rid of his left gloves. He doesn’t usually like to draw attention to his extra finger, but when there’s money to be made, why not make it?

He later regrets not haggling better after discovering that one team sold it to another for ten times what he asked.

  * ·         265: find a pin from each division of the shatterdome



This is more a test of one’s ability to socialise than anything else—except, perhaps, burglary. Most non-participants are obliging enough, but others are less than kind in their refusing, which is where the burglary comes in. LOCCENT, last and least obliging, are all wearing their pins and individually decide whether or not they want to lend someone theirs. They go to the loo in pairs to ensure this.

Raleigh, after a brief discussion with Mako, turns up outside LOCCENT asking to see Tendo. Tendo nods reassuringly at his colleagues, pushes the command chair and PA microphone to Lingling in case something comes along that she might want to commentate, and exits.

Raleigh, thumbs in his pockets, grins at Tendo when he comes out. “Hey, Tendo.”

“Don’t you ‘hey Tendo’ me, Becket boy, you’ve been holding out on me. Where’d this thing with Mako come from, huh? Not that I ain’t giving my blessings, but it looks kinda sudden to us.” Tendo wags a finger at the younger man. “There’s many people who want her to be happy, for about as long as that can last.”

Raleigh chuckles even as he goes red; Tendo’s too good a friend for him to feel intimidated in any way. “Aw, c’mon. We never ragged you about Marina, or Alison, or whatsisname, Vincent?”

“Vicente,” Tendo corrects. “And no, you didn’t. But this is concern, bro, not teasing. For both of you. Kid’s young, and you, you’ve been off the radar years.”

“We’ll be okay,” Raleigh insists weakly, shuffling his feet. “You know I wouldn’t hurt her—she isn’t just someone I-I like, she’s my co-pilot.”

“Yeah, that’s why some folks worry,” Tendo sighs. “But you didn’t pop into LOCCENT just for a jawin’ in the middle of a game like this. What’s up?”

“Ah. Well, see, there’s a little matter of a pin or two…”

Tendo laughs long and loud, putting up his hand to display his empty collar. “No help there, bro. Gave mine to the missus already for her team. You wanna ask anyone else, go ahead, but there’s nothing from me here.”

“I’ll give it!” comes a voice from over Tendo’s shoulder. A person Raleigh doesn’t recognise has detached themselves from the group eavesdropping from around the door and is practically vibrating in place as they remove their pin and hold it out to Raleigh. “I was a big fan of you and your brother back then, y’know.”

Raleigh ignores the sting that bringing up his brother gives him, smiling warmly at them as he takes the pin and tucks it into the envelope he and Mako are using to hold the pins for the task. “Thanks very much then. What’s your name?”

“Joey. I was in the academy about a couple of months after you guys beat Yamarashi. That was _amazing._ ”

“That’s very kind of you, Joey.” Raleigh puts out his hand, squeezing Joey’s before letting go and stepping back. “Okay, I gotta get back to Mako now, but there’s one more thing, and this time you can’t tell me no, Tendo…”

  * ·         180: steal doughnut, bagel or personal coffee cup from LOCCENT



This seems easier than it should be. Many people assume that they can just get a doughnut or bagel from the canteen and call it good.

But no. LOCCENT has its own personal doughnuts and bagels, all stamped with a little LOCCENT mark in fancy font. Those unlucky enough not to know will soon be disqualified.

Naturally, LOCCENT’s own team get away with this quite easily. Their own cups do well for the task. The rest of LOCCENT are either holding their cup in their hands, filling up on coffee, or letting their colleagues set their cups on the table next to them. They’ve decided that they can make the doughnuts and bagels last the weekend. It’s a challenge to the other teams.

Tendo gleefully commentates their efforts. “And, ooooh,  _there_  goes Sanjana Kuznetsova the Cherno Alpha technician with a bagel! First one to get it! Shame she’s bitten such a big bit out of it, no way that’ll count.”

Later Lingling, watching from the back rather than a camera, just as gleefully announces, “And there goes Becket with Commander Choi’s #1 Husband cup! Should’ve just given him a bagel before he asked, boss, I ain’t lending you  _my_  mug to drink out of.”

  * 352: Get K-science to give you a piece of kaiju



Dr Geiszler is all for locking the door and toughing it through the weekend. Dr Gottleib is of the view that they should set out what’s allowable and spend the weekend in the city. They spend a good two hours arguing about this, most especially Dr Gottleib’s view that they should just  _give_  people a piece of a non-essential sample (“ _Every_  piece is essential, Hermann!”).  Eventually they settle on leaving out test tubes for #21, a test tube filled with seawater, and split their remaining time with Geiszler going out to the city to get everything Gottleib demands, while Gottleib makes his way around the lab getting things comfortable for them to stay in the lab for the duration of the weekend, bullying a pair of burly pons technicians into carrying bedding and the thick blankets that he indulged in to the lab’s couch.

They try to find other non-participants willing to bunk with them so they don’t have to take twelve hour shifts, but they’ve left this task too late. Anyone otherwise willing has already found somewhere in the city to stay or already has made plans to wait out the weekend. Most everyone else isn’t willing to do it for free. Ultimately the Drs G aren’t able to come to a satisfactory agreement with anyone, and resign themselves to long hours spent fending off the teams who won’t take no for an answer.

For the most part they succeed, though it comes to a head on Saturday afternoon when Gottleib nearly concusses a Cherno Alpha technician with his cane and  _does_  break one of the specimen jars, sending ammonia and bits of kaiju all over the floor.

They’ll clean it up later. Priority is removing the luckless technician to the infirmary, which is no easy task with only the two of them there.

  * 194: Find someone with a tattoo on their butt



Dr Geiszler has, since this task was added, pre-emptively emailed participants with a shot of his bare behind, captioned: ‘NO BUTT TATTOO, CAN’T USE ME.’ The more astute note that the shot was taken a few years back, and one team actually manages to catch him while he’s peeing, pantsing him and getting a photo of his tattoo of Reckoner. Gottleib sighs when his fellow scientist returns to the lab raging about the ‘sheer indecency’ of some people (Gottleib hadn’t even thought that word was in Geiszler’s vocabulary), placates him enough to get him to sit down and stew, and makes another kettle of tea.

Another team actually goes out on Friday afternoon to get someone’s butt tattooed. The one who drew the short straw ends up on his feet for the rest of the weekend. He’s never had a tattoo before, and the bottom isn’t exactly the first spot on his body he would have chosen.

The ones with more opportunity to have seen someone’s bare bottom in the past few months lean on this knowledge to wheedle them into helping. With all manner of attempts—perhaps promise of a repeat of that occasion, perhaps exchange of currency or other favours—quite a few non-participants graciously drop trou.

  *   196: Find someone who can speak both a local language and a foreign language (not including English)



This  _used_  to be one of the easier tasks.

Nearly everyone speaks at least two languages out of necessity. If they didn’t when they joined, they do now. About the only Domes that never had this task were the Australian and American ones, and even then both Domes added the task once it was argued for persuasively enough (in a bar, over a bottle of beer, in a different continent altogether —no one quite figured out how their local hunt organisers got word of it). But in Hong Kong, sometimes the only common language  _is_  English, and that’s an obstacle to getting this task done. Spanish and Russian together were good qualifiers for the task back in Vladivostok; here where Mandarin and Cantonese and other Chinese dialects abound, they both remain foreign.

All the crew who were originally based in Hong Kong before have this handily done. The rest begin sweet-talking non-participants into helping them, cajoling long time Facebook friends or former Academy classmates. Overall, not many teams complete this task.

One team barely scrapes in to this challenge by catching somebody on the phone home, speaking French, and startling him into yelling at them in Cantonese. 11.45pm on Sunday evening— uploaded 11.57pm because their chosen person was astute enough to chase the one holding the cameraphone.

  * 295: Find a piece of designer clothing



Not many people still wear designer clothing in a building where the majority of the work is blue collar. Even Tendo, with his rockabilly look, doesn’t have special tags on his clothing.

Nearly anyone who still does own designer clothing saves it for special occasions, of which there have been few the past several years. Really the only people with opportunity or necessity to wear designer clothing are the officers who still needed to make nice with politicians. So that’s who everyone who _doesn’t_  own designer clothing looks to.

Marshal Pentecost generally depends on his authority to make sure no one steals from  _him_. He does give Mako one of his shirts preemptively, because he bears her just the tiniest bias in unofficial exercises, but that’s all. He locks down his clothes and leaves it at that.

He reconsiders that after the second time he catches someone with their hands in his wardrobe. After kicking her out, he sorts through his clothes, stuffs them hastily in a duffel bag, and vacates his rooms to find shelter elsewhere.

He supposes that perhaps he ought to have done this before the game began. No one’s letting anyone in anywhere. After a couple of narrow escapes (including some where he didn’t manage to escape without the scavengers accomplishing their task), he makes it to K-Science, where, to his bemusement, the good doctors are carrying an unconscious man out the door. Not very well, either, going by how Gottleib is limping and Geiszler is panting.

“May I be of assistance, gentlemen?”

He’s not sure how to describe the expressions on their faces. It might be awe, or it might be guilt. Either way, he steps forward, sets his duffle bag at Gottleib’s feet, and takes the man—he thinks it’s Sergeyev from the Cherno Alpha crew—into his arms. Gottleib straightens, leaning on his cane as little as possible, and salutes automatically. “Thank you absolutely, Marshal. We’ll make a space for you on the couch.”

He hears Geiszler hiss as he walks away, “jeezus, Hermann, how many times do I have to  _tell_  you, you don’t have to salute!”

What Gottleib says in return is lost as he turns the corner.

  *  560: Steal food from Crimson Typhoon’s snack bar



People get food for this task.

That is, people get food specifically to pretend to take from the snack bar shelves or fridge. It seems a safer option than actually taking anything. The problem is, the Crimson Typhoon crew has taken action beforehand.

A small photo of the snack bar is attached to one of the shelves, taken before the game starts. And there are few varieties left. Only the expired or near to expiring snacks are to be found, with a small sign warning them not to actually eat them because of this. ‘We care about your health and your ability to get points, but we also care about our food. Snacks will be returned after the game.’

Half the teams curse themselves for wasting their money, but several just shrug and snag a pack while eating their bought snacks.

—

When it comes at last to the hunt conclusion, the massive audience spills out of the mess halls and the garages. The sheer number of people means that it can’t be done in one go. But the mystery hunt organiser has thought of this too—everyone soon gets linked to a website that will streamline the process for them.

The uploaded photos and videos, as evidence of items taken or deeds done, are flashed on screen and each team gets to vote on what they think average points awarded should be, including special mentions for any team that should be awarded fewer or more points. As each photo goes up, there are more cheers and groans heard around the Dome. Although with this new process people could conceivably retreat to their individual bunks to watch the conclusion, still people pile into any big space they can find, participant or no. It’s too much fun not to be in a crowd.

Everyone makes pointed remarks about #340, the kissing one. It’s hard not to; it’s one of the highlights of the game and nearly every team has tried, though few have succeeded.  The Jaeger pilots are up first, and everyone groans or sighs or throw pointed looks or smirks in the direction of those teams. The Kaidanovskies put up a ridiculously romantic photo, probably having recruited a non-participant in the mix because it’s taken a good distance away. Sasha’s swept her husband up in her arms, insofar as she’s able to, and dipped him in for a kiss. It’s altogether another level from their casual displays of affection and half the Dome is red upon seeing them in the days after.

Lady Danger’s pilots are a surprise, though. Most people have figured that, sure, they’ll take advantage of the task for points, but no one expects the ridiculous selfie they’ve taken. A chaste peck would have been more probable, given everyone’s concerns about the Marshal, but instead they’ve gone for an open-mouthed kiss, all flushed and—“oooh,” says one person, “I think that’s tongue.”

Everyone near Marshal Pentecost sneaks looks at him. He remains stony-faced.

Everyone agrees that the Weis probably will skip this task, and they’re right. They’re not right about the Hansens—Chuck has taken a photo of himself kissing his dog. There’s an immediate outcry at that, because among other things, Max was never registered for the scavenger hunt and therefore isn’t part of the Hansens’ team. Chuck is quite vocal about the photo counting, and all the teams in his immediate area are just as vocal about it not counting. Herc, who had only gone along with it because it couldn’t have hurt to try, remains quite sanguine about the whole idea.

It progresses on to other teams. Everyone knows that the pilots will have supported their own crews, and the photos bear it out, though with the Crimson Typhoon crew it’s possible that only one triplet kissed three people. They’d supported the one team with the biggest chunk of their crew, though, since many of them have divided into other teams with their other friends and colleagues. Not unexpectedly, Cherno Alpha’s crew has scored three photos as well, the third being Anatoly Sergeyev and his boyfriend. For Striker Eureka’s crew, Chuck has clearly done it under duress, because he’s significantly less enthusiastic about the kiss than in his previous photo. Herc remains quite chaste in his kiss (Marshal Pentecost, in his section, looks pleased).

Hilariously, Lady Danger’s crew has photos for every member of the crew participating. It seems that each crew member has chosen to kiss Raleigh, possibly because they fear the Marshal but more probably because they just swing that way. The pilots’ pretense at a relationship hasn’t done so well.

When it moves on to the rest of the Dome, there’s a bit of an uproar in Crimson Typhoon’s section, because the first one up is LOCCENT’s Zhang Leidian kissing her ex-boyfriend, and he’s quite clearly not been ambushed, given his arms around her. Cheung and Jin are pelting their brother with potato chips, but Hu is unrepentant. Money exchanges hands behind them, because most people know the pattern of their relationship.

Following that is a surprising number of people kissing, or more properly being kissed by, one Kaidanovsky or the other. The difficulty is in capturing the moment; in several they’ve only just barely caught the sight of lips touching. There’s so many, in fact, that many people are loudly decrying the points being skewed (which both husband and wife find amusing, as they weren’t aiming for that, but they’ll take it). There’s not as many of the Hansens, but those keeping count note that Herc has garnered vastly more kisses than his son (who’s looking rather bothered in his section).

Coming very last, on one of the aircraft teams, is a shot of Squadron Leader Asuka Watanabe stealing a kiss from Marshal Pentecost. He’s clearly caught off guard, given the startled look on his face, and everyone in Watanabe’s section who isn’t already part of her team shoot her looks of awe. (She’s really quite lucky Herc isn’t nearby; he’ll have boiled off by the time he sees her.)

Those who believe that shot should count award her full points. Those who don’t argue for disqualification, but they’re eventually outvoted.

There are runner-up photos, where the pilot has narrowly avoided a kiss, or the photographer has just missed the moment of lips actually touching. The Kaidanovskies lead this section again, with the very last being Aleksis parting from Marshal Pentecost. Whether it took place before or after Watanabe’s successful attempt, the Marshal looks a little more bothered, possibly because Aleksis actually caught him in an embrace as opposed to Watanabe’s tug on his suit-front.

After that, things settle down a little, but only a little. There’s laughter and jeering for the more embarrassing tasks, especially where people have been ambushed; the butt tattoo task has been carefully curated and cropped so as not to identify the people in the photos. (Dr Geiszler breathes a sigh of relief, but Dr Gottleib wrinkles his nose anyway.) More than a few teams are displeased to learn that little part about LOCCENT’s pastries. (“Of  _course_  they would, just to make things difficult. Otherwise what’s the friggin’  _point_  of stamping bagels, that’s so pretentious.”)

The sex toy task comes, Mr Fleshlight/Beer Can cringes, Sasha preens (everyone near them does their very best not to look at her husband’s crotch) and people speculate on who owns what. (Raleigh and Mako are separately just glad that they’re already crimson from their kiss onscreen so that no one realises the purple bullet vibe is their team’s.) Chuck  _tries_  not to blush but he ends up nearly glowing as people around his section loudly guess him as the owner of nearly every one.

While Tendo isn’t commentating the conclusion— he’s just as in the dark as everyone else— he and the rest of LOCCENT are still speculating and commenting as loudly as everyone else. They’re obviously rooting for their own team, but they obediently cheer for Allison Choi’s team of pons technicians whenever their team has completed a task. During some of the less interesting photos, tales are exchanged of how they got that particular item, and more than a few people gnash their teeth and wish they’d bet on this or that team for that or this task. Near the end, there’s a commotion in one of the mess halls as someone claims that he’s been cheated and a fight breaks out, only broken up by Herc and one of Striker Eureka’s crew.

That’s really the only reason why Herc misses the announcement of points; he’s dragging burly men out into the corridor to chastise them.

He knows there’s a yelling about cheating because he recognises his son’s voice, but it isn’t until he makes it back that he discovers how indignant Chuck is that they’re last out of the jaeger pilots. Twelfth place really isn’t so bad, especially when Lady Danger and Crimson Typhoon tied for tenth. The Kaidanovskies are quite pleased with the spot on ninth, and celebrate by reenacting their kiss, though there’s little space to dip Aleksis. Overall, fifteenth and up have completed a little over 30% apiece of the list. New records, new tales to tell, all in all a very memorable weekend. Those who aren’t on the edge of their seat by the time the top three teams are announced are settled in comfortably. Popcorn at the ready, drinks in mouth ready to spew in case of surprises.

The LOCCENT team comes in third, which some of them are rather displeased about. They had the strength of having the most people on their side, why didn’t they get first? The answer lies in the second team, made up of Cherno Alpha crew. Tough, persistent, and able to find almost  _anything_. They cream the LOCCENT team handily, 45% to LOCCENT’s 39%.

First place belongs to a team made up of an assortment of mechanics, technicians, and mess hall cooks, all hailing from the Hong Kong Shatterdome and the Crimson Typhoon crew. They scrape in above Cherno Alpha’s lot with 47%, and while there are menacing glares and obnoxious smirks exchanged across tables and halls, they nevertheless grudgingly all get up to shake hands. From opposite sides, Aleksis and Cheung make motions to get them to smile, each pushing up the corners of their mouths with their fingers. It almost works. (Anatoly blows a kiss to Cheung. Cheung tries not to melt.)

It’s always a guess what the prize is; it varies from Dome to Dome and hunt to hunt. Somewhere in 2019 the Sydney Shatterdome got an actual trophy made, and it’s been passed from winning team to winning team there since. Chuck, who won with his dad the last time, is steaming as Herc gets up to shake hands and pass them the trophy. He was looking forward to holding that up again and hollering his triumph again, dammit.

For the time remaining, that trophy takes pride of place on a shelf on the Crimson Typhoon snack bar. It stays there for long after the Dome is decommissioned.

(Most people only notice that Mako and Raleigh have gone when the conclusion is over. Herc looks across the hall while Chuck is occupied sulking into Max’s ears. He catches Stacker’s eye and winks, mouthing Mako’s name. Stacker shakes his head, thumb pointing briefly over his shoulder, and mouths a congratulations in return. The mood is good. It’ll last the two days to the next attack, Stacker hopes.)

Up on Lady Danger’s massive head, Raleigh and Mako have gotten their sign down and are sat comfortably in the middle. Mako lies down flat, ignoring the tug of her harness, and groans when Raleigh nudges the shoulder opposite him.

“Hey, hey. You’ve got a bed in your room, y’know. Reward for a hard going weekend, right?”

“I worked hard enough on this Jaeger, I should at least get to sleep on it.” She rolls away from his nudging, only to bump into his thigh. She sits up a bit then, but only to drop her head on his leg for a pillow.

Raleigh pauses, studying her closed eyes. Then he leans over and takes her hand, squeezing it lightly, before raising his other knee and bowing his head over it.

They can have this, for now.


End file.
